Tag Archives: Palm

It was obvious someone would buy Palm, but I didn’t think Hewlett-Packard was the top contender. HP bought all of Palms stocks for $1.2 billion, and while there are plenty of transition details to work out, HP is definitely is getting the WebOS asset. Whether or not HP will invest to compete against Apple, Google, and Microsoft or simply use the WebOS for its tablets is unsure. We have to give them a few months to get all the details set.

While Palm lost $98 million in this same quarter a year ago, it’s only lost $22 million this quarter. Uh, hooray?

Palm shipped 960,000 smartphones in the period, which represents a 23 percent increase from Q2 2010 and a nearly 300 percent increase compared to this quarter in 2009. However, sell-through wasn’t great, with just 408,000 units changing hands — that’s a 29 percent decline from last quarter and a 15 percent drop year-over-year.

Here’s what Palm had to say:

“Our recent underperformance has been very disappointing, but the potential for Palm remains strong. The work we’re doing to improve sales is having an impact, we’re making great progress on future products, and we’re looking forward to upcoming launches with new carrier partners. Most importantly, we have built a unique and highly differentiated platform in webOS, which will provide us with a considerable – and growing – advantage as we move forward.

We had an arrangement with Sprint that when we launched with Sprint that they would invest in marketing and carry the product and for that they would get an exclusive for a period of time. That really determined when we could do our launch at Verizon. I agree with your premise that if we could have launched at Verizon earlier, prior to Droid, that we would have gotten the attention that the Droid got and since I believe that we have a better product, I think we would have even done better.”

As Palm’s keynote finishes, we can start to understand just what their main goal was: upgrade, upgrade upgrade.

Not only did they announce TWO new phones, but they’ll also be some other… adjustments.

First off, the Pre is getting a makeover. The 2nd generation of the Pre will be available on Verizon and will be sporting a new slider (that reportedly makes the phone feel more snappy and solidly constructed), a new set of keys that are not orange (and possibly a bit more raised), and a new capacity of 16GB capacity. The Pixi didn’t get such a dramatic makeover. It only added itself to Verizon’s lineup with WiFi.

Elsewhere in the Palm universe, they’ve also announced a PDK (plugin developers kit) that’ll show itself in March (and support REAL 3D gaming), so game developers can get their product onto the WebOS. Until then, users will be able to play Need for Speed and the Sims 3 thanks to EA. These games will act just like other apps, so when you see a text message, you’ll still be able to view apps as cards, and the game will only pause. These other games were also added to the catalog today:

Need for Speed(TM) Undercover (EA Mobile)

The Sims(TM) 3 (EA Mobile)

MONOPOLY(TM) (EA Mobile)

Asphalt 5: Elite Racing (Gameloft)

Let’s Golf! (Gameloft)

Glyder 2 (Glu Mobile)

X-Plane (Laminar Research)

Tetris (R) (EA Mobile)

Sudoku (EA Mobile)

SCRABBLE (R) (EA Mobile)

The Oregon Trail (Gameloft)

Brain Challenge (Gameloft)

Palm also unveiled a “Mobile Hotspot” app, so that you can tether more than one computer to your phone for Verizon 3G connectivity. The app is subject to monthly charges (unless you have unlimited data).

We all know that Palm loves to be open and free, considering they think they can use anyone’s software for free.

Palm has unleashed its legal team on the makers of the aptly-named “Palm Pre Android Theme” that borrows icons, wallpapers, and all around feel from the Palm Pre.

Palm is uptight here about graphics copyrights and trademark infringement — and the company is demanding that they cease use of the Pre’s interface, name, etc. Palm comes out and says that it “appreciates that imitation is the most sincere form of flattery,”however, they’re worried about consumers confusing it for the Pre. It’s not like they would think that was an iPhone…

Well, it seems like Palm is pouting over the fact that they didn’t invent iTunes, and now can’t use it. Today they released Web OS 1.1, and with it, a new mechanism to sync the Pre with iTunes, which was previously broken by Apple.

“Palm has released webOS 1.1, which, along with offering more robust EAS support for business users, re-enables Palm media sync,” said company spokesperson Lynn Fox. “Palm believes that openness and interoperability offer better experiences for users by allowing them the freedom to use the content they own without interference across devices and services, so on behalf of consumers, we have notified the USB Implementers Forum of what we believe is improper use of the Vendor ID number by another member.”

However, the USB Compliance Organization might be in favor of Apple here:

When you apply for a USB Vendor ID, you sign a form that explicitly states that:

But isn’t it Apple’s right to keep iTunes exclusive? How long have they been developing it, keeping it available, free, and working on iPod/iPhone features? One of the iPhone’s major selling points is that everything syncs with iTunes. Is it really Palm’s right to claim that they are an “iPod” and use iTunes, which they had no part of developing?

If you developed iTunes/iPod/iPhone, would you let Palm use your software FOR FREE? Without your permission?

Okay, today was a little hectic because of iPhone 3.0’s release. The improvements are notable, and worth the wait! (We’ll have a review up soon)

To start off, Apple has commented that “they are aware that 3rd parties are using their software, and at any time that software may not work as expected due to software updates”. Obviously, Apple is calling Palm out here, almost yanking the already short leash Palm is on with iTunes. Palm returned with “we aren’t afraid and will do what is necessary to keep flawless syncing alive” Ugh.

AT&T has also reconsidered the plans for iPhone 3G owners. Those who would be eligible in July through September can get the discounted price ($199 for 16GB, $299 for 32GB) on the iPhone 3G S. Yay. Did I mention MMS and Tethering still aren’t available?

Tweet Deck for iPhone is also out. For those of you who don’t Tweet like your fellow tech community, Tweet Deck is an extensive desktop application for Twitter, built off of the Adobe Air platform for both Mac + PC. The application is quite amazing, and it’s free. First reports from the users say that Tweet Deck is fun, snappy, and worth the price of FREE and it even syncs with it’s desktop counterpart!

For all of those fans who would like their online gaming to-go, NGMoco (creators of Topple for iPhone) are expected to release their version of Xbox-Live for the iPhone tomorrow. The app, Ngmoco +, will allow gamers to create profiles, keep track of friends, records and gaming history across multiple games. It’ll be completely free.

Lastly, there are still some hackers out there, well, at least some 10 year old kids who think they know how to hack, still wishing that they could keep their jail broken iPhone. The iPhone Dev Team have put together “ultrasn0w” which is slated to unlock, jail break, and mystify your iPhone once again.

Yes, it was a good keynote by Apple, but more announcements were made today that answer some questions asked on Monday.

To start, Snow Leopard is completely ditching the PowerPC chip. Intel chips are now a requirement to run OSX 10.6. It will also give all multi touch trackpad equipped notebooks full support for 3 and 4 fingered touch gestures.

Secondly, AT&T has confirmed that they will support tethering, although we don’t know when. It would have been nice to see them in the Keynote presentation, but they’re always behind.

The “Find My iPhone” feature of Mobile Me is also live now, and working as planned. This also comes with the announcement of a free “iDisk” app that will support all your documents and give you the ability to view your Mobile Me iDisk on your iPhone, giving it a small version of a file system. The iPhone 3G S also has a fingerprint/water and oil protected screen, which only needs a dry cloth to clean it, reducing the risk of water damage.

A bit of bad news however: iPhone 3G only supports Open GL 1.1, while the new iPhone 3G S supports 2.0. This leads to questions about the app store dividing into split sections, along with the fact that the new iPhone has a 600Mhz processor and 264 MB of RAM. Apple says that you can always develop GL 1.1 to support all touch devices and not just 2.0.

-Jon Rubinstein has taken over as CEO of Palm, officially making it the anti-Apple.

And lastly, a bit of advice from Jesus Diaz over at Gizmodo: AT&T is right about charging full price, because they are already giving us discounts, and it’s not like the economy is great anyway. Have an iPhone 3G? Does it work? Then take advantage of the speed boosts in the free iPhone 3.0 update next week, and be happy with it, because it will save you more than a few hundred dollars.